TIME TO EXPLAIN

It's been a while...

Hey all

I hope you are all well and have had a successful half year? Can you believe that we are more than half way through the year! And, with a bit of luck, we will have a decent summer this year! Heavens knows we deserve it :)

I’ve been churning out the newsletter since March 2021 and it’s been a delight to see the newsletter grow in terms of subscribers. But, I realised the other day that there will be subscribers who are relatively new to the newsletter and may not really know of it’s origin and why I started it etc.

And, there’s a story behind it that may absolutely resonate with you. So here goes…

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I started the newsletter to sit alongside my 45 Not Out Podcast . Although there are over 20 episodes in the podcast series covering all manner of subjects that affect us as mid-life and older women, I felt it would be useful to have more communication. So I started the newsletter.

The story behind why I started the 45 Not Out platform as whole is a bit more involved, though.

The first platform I started was a podcast and I started it as a means of venting my annoyance of the ageism I received when I tried to start a business at the age of 50. I’d had decades of experience in my field prior to starting my business, so I was something of an expert, but you wouldn’t have known it. When I attended networking meetings - crucial to getting myself known and my business off the ground - it was very clear that I wasn’t taken very seriously because of my age. And this happened time and time again.

Of course, there was nothing I could do about this, so I had to swallow it down and continue to build my business as best I could. Which I did, and found some great, non ageist contacts along with way too.

But, now and again, the older woman tag would raise its head so again, so I continued to swallow it down and I worked on.

After a year or two, podcasting crossed my radar and I soon realised that this was a perfect platform from which to talk (nicely) about the ageism I had received and to invite women in similar positions to me onto the podcast.

The biggest, biggest revelation of this was that I was far from alone. Women of a similar age to me from all walks of life were coming on the podcast to talk about the ageism and prejudice they had received both in their work and their everyday lives.

It was so eye-opening! And heartening to find I wasn’t alone. So I continued to launch a podcast every month and then started the newsletter to complement it.

Fast forward 2 years and here we are.

I hope that the newsletter continues to give you something and that I’m still on the correct radar for all that matters in our world.

If you’re finding that there’s something I’m not mentioning, then I’d love for you to let me know. You can do that by replying to this newsletter or you can email at unacottrell20@gmail.com

I’d just like to thank all the loyal subscribers who continue to remain readers of the newsletter - it means a lot you’re still here :)

So, see you in a fortnight’s time

Keep well and happy in the meantime.

Take care,

Una x